A World of Sunshine and Peace, Shattered
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: the Derek/Eve romance throughout the books in Derek's prespective.


Derek had met Caddy first.

He was at the campus trying to make students aware of his plight. The quarry company are remaining stubborn about the stones and it was natural history that shouldn't be touched. He knew out of experience that the best recruits are often students. They all want to help and fight against authority and do all good deeds. Until they leave and their debts get the better of them causing them to work and ignore problems like these.

Caddy had immediately signed the petition and took a leaflet about the cause. She then of course invited him for coffee. The next three months had been filled with coffee and getting to know one another. Derek adored Caddy he truly did but he found her far too young and far too taken.

"I'd like you to meet my mother" she said randomly at one coffee meeting. A Thursday.

"Oh?" he choked slightly, wondering if he gave off far too many signals that he never meant.

"She's your type" Caddy said serenely.

He couldn't help but laugh. She was trying to matchmake him, relieve had filled him up instantly and he grinned at Caddy. "I would love to meet her"

And he meant it. Caddy had spent hours telling him about her family and Eve sounded definitely like his type of woman. She sounded like Caddy but had years of experience and loved unconditionally.

"How about Monday? You could pick me up and drop me off to London before doing your campaigning"

So as agreed Derek appeared outside of the Banana House, which, much to his private disappointment, was not shaped as a banana but was a big crumbling house. Immediately he began assessing the damage and what could be done to conserve the house. He loved mending things and restoring them. Wasn't very good a building new things though. Caddy greeted him with a large smile and ushered him into a crowded kitchen filled with clutter. Her siblings had already left for school so he didn't get the chance to meet them. Eve, however, was hovering around her painting looking anxious.

The moment Caddy introduced him though her face un-creased into a beautiful smile as she shook his hand and said, "Darling, darling, do sit down. A cup of tea? No coffee? We got lots of coffee"

He liked her. She was a more blurred version of Caddy (who had sharper and more defined features) but she had crinkles in the corner of her eyes that showed she's been smiling for years. Her eyes were a very warm deep colour like the Mediterranean and her hands were soft yet he could feel the calluses of a hard-working woman. She was beautiful.

After dropping Caddy off in London, Derek kept thinking about Eve. About how she looked, how she spoke, how she admired him for helping her with her painting. He quite liked her. Yes, he liked her very much.

So later, when Caddy tells him the story of Eve's attempts to rewire her shed, he comes back to the Banana House with his tool box.

The children were there at the time and they all (apart from Saffron who he thought was most difficult to impress) looked at him admiringly. He felt rather honoured when the youngest asked for him to pose so she could do his drawing (since Caddy had said Rose is also rather difficult to impress. Especially for their father).

And Eve looking up at him with a child-like innocence after he finished his work. "Oh, Darling Derek!" she exclaimed joyfully. "How can I ever repay you?"

"How about dinner. You and me at a restaurant" he asked.

Her nose scrunched itself up in confusion. It was very adorable. "What about Caddy?"

"Caddy is just a friend. She wanted me to meet you" Eve blushed lightly and Derek grinned as he tucked some stray golden hairs behind her ear. "Seven o'clock tonight? Or is that too soon"

"Oh no, seven o'clock is fine. Just fine"

ECECECECECECECEC

"You look beautiful"

Eve blushed and looked down at herself. "Oh darling, nonsense I look like a mess" she said spinning around.

Derek thought otherwise. She was dressed in a rich purple velvet skirt with a gypsy blouse with flouncy sleeves. Her hair was clean from paint and in its usual tangled mess and her face was make up-less and paint-less. She wasn't polished or made up with straightened hair and posh clothes. She was simply Eve and it was a wonderful sight.

He told her that causing her to cry out "Oh Darling Derek!" in a mix of embarrassed and flattered tones.

They had a lovely walk to town where Eve had no problems slipping her arm through his as he led her to a small little restaurant that Saffy had promised to be Eve's favourite. From the exclamations coming out of Eve, Saffy had certainly been right. He acted a proper gentleman as he opened the door for her and held out her chair. Waiting for her to sit down before he even moved to his chair. He of course, waited for her to start eating before diving into his own meal.

The conversation randomly changed into different topics. Eve's latest paintings, Derek's protest camp movements, the children – Caddy's almost engagement, Indigo's health and friendship with Tom, Saffy in general and Rose's infatuation with Tom. The last one led into talking about Rose.

"For someone so stubborn and determined, she's a very tiny girl" Derek commented over dessert. "Very fragile looking"

"Oh poor Rosie Pose!" Eve laughed. "She'd hate you for saying that. She's very tough, at our health visitor's last visit she had been described robust. She was premature as it was and then there had been difficulties with her heart and when that was over she was ill all over again. She spent her first year in that hospital" Eve shuddered. "I never slept. Bill was in London all the time and I had three other children to look after as well as a baby to visit. Sometimes I took them all with me not to just make time but...i thought, maybe just maybe, seeing her siblings would make her stronger. And it worked"

"It worked" Derek agreed. "She's a tough girl and she'll be giving the world hell. Though...she seems to be taking it hard that her father's not in the picture even though he hasn't been since she was a baby"

"Oh...Bill..." Eve looked utterly miserable. Derek wanted to cross over and wrap his arms round her and tell her everything will be fine. "He used to come every weekend without fail and now...only when he needs to be. She's quite cross with him for that. Cross with him for not coming no matter what she writes and very cross with the glasses he forced her to get"

"She holds a grudge?"

"Probably. She doesn't know...and I can't quite bring myself to tell her. She's only a little darling and I want to keep her safe. I failed to take care of Saffy and she once ran off to Italy"

"I think you're a fantastic mother. It's very obvious your children – Saffy included – adore you"

"Oh Darling Derek!"

After dinner he walked her through the park before heading back home. It was windy and Eve was inappropriately dressed as she began to shiver. He couldn't help but give her a fond smile for forgetting a coat and wrapped an arm round her shoulders, allowing her to lean into his warmth.

Once they reached the door she left his side and looked up at him with a grateful smile. "I haven't been treated so lovely, lovely, like a lady in years. Thank you ever so much darling"

"No, thank you for coming out with me. I hope we can do this again"

"Oh yes, that would be lovely"

And he leaned in and kissed her gently but firmly before leaving.

ECECECECECECECECEC

Slowly but surely Derek fell into the Casson way of life. He visited as often as he could and when he did he helped around the house fixing what has been broken since his last visit. He always brought Eve her favourite pink lilies, always ate whatever Indigo cooked and claimed to be one of the best meals he ever had, helped Saffy with homework and told Rose stories before falling asleep on the sofa not even trying to further his physical relationship with Eve. There was little point to try when she was not ready and he rather work on the emotional aspect if it meant winning Eve completely.

Sarah, Michael and Tom have become large parts of his life too. Helping Saffy often meant helping Sarah. Michael was an intelligent and interesting young man who was most definitely in love with the Casson way of life and more importantly Caddy. Tom was falling in deep too, new as Derek was to the family but was getting steadily more involved. Derek knew Tom was going to break the family's hearts when he went back to America. His own too. After a bit of a fight with Rose when America got brought up Derek knew instantly that Rose's heart would be the most broken.

A small part of him was prepared to hate Tom for that. He was already beginning to see Rose as his own little girl.

The comfortable relationship that he developed with them all started to break a little when Tom was supposed to go back to America. When Tom disappeared and Indigo shortly afterwards, Rose in tears over the fact she broke the guitar and everyone unsure what to do, Bill had come back.

Smooth, sophisticated and rather snobbish. Bill was not the man that Derek would have ever seen married to Eve. Not unless he was a hippy as a young man and grew out of it into this prat. With uneasy and very awkward conversations that Rose seemed completely oblivious too (mostly because she was moping over Tom leaving) Derek came to a very sad and dark conclusion.

"You're never going to stop loving him, are you?"

"Oh Darling Derek! Please not now, I don't think I can take it. Rose is too sad and no one is really helping. I'm too sad right now too"

"Eve..."

She looked up at him with her innocent eyes that were filled with tears. "Please darling" she said.

He bent down and kissed her. "Ok, I guess there's a sink that needs unblocking"

"Oh Darling Derek! You don't have too, at all"

"I do" he said turning to go. He barely reached the back door when he whirled round and called out to her. "You do know I love you, don't you?"

She turned back and beamed. "Oh darling, darling, I adore you"

That wasn't the answer he was looking for.

ECECECECECECECECECEC

He gave Eve her space over the summer hoping she would realise how much he meant to her. The protest finally won and his camp was now closed. Unsure what to do Derek had drifted through friends' homes trying to find work or a cause. Eventually he found Tangier, small African country that could use some help. There was a special large bus that ran through giving out aid and support to the poorer villages.

It was perfect.

He decided this was the question to ask. Eve and Bill weren't divorce and whether it was because Eve kept losing the papers or Bill never bothered. Either way it meant Derek couldn't ask Eve for something as permanent as marriage but he could ask her to travel with him. Live in a bus with him.

So he came back to the Banana House all eager only to find Caddy depressed because she broke up with Michael, Saffy in shock because Bill was actually her father, Tom replaced by a boy called David and Rose was in seventh heaven because she went to America. Eve was also happy. Very happy. Not because he was here though she seemed please but because of Bill breaking up with Samantha.

It wasn't a good sign.

"Eve" he said quietly as she pottered around attempting to cook. "I'm going to Africa soon. Tangier in fact and I was thinking...you could come to"

She froze for a moment and then shook her head. "Oh Darling Derek! I can't, I have Rose and Indigo and Saffy to look after. Not to mention Caddy isn't exactly the happiest right now"

"Eve, the children can come with us. The internet is everywhere and with three laptops they can easily catch up on their studies. They would also learn real life skills and charity. Also I love all of them to bits, I'd love for them to come" Derek said calmly. "Besides if you waited for everyone to be happy, really happy, then you'd be stuck here forever"

"What about Bill?" it came quiet and almost immediately. As if she hadn't thought about it and it was all instinct.

It seems no matter what he does he could never make her fully love him. Not with Bill around.

"There isn't room on the bus for Bill" he said stiffly.

She turned and faced him. Her face was almost serene despite the sadness that he could see etched into her eyes. "I adore you. I really do. You make me feel young again and loved. So very much loved. But you got to understand. I never really had many boyfriends, a few lovers and those had been intense and left me oh so very sad. Bill...he understood me at the time. He loved me passionately and did everything to make me happy. He brought me four beautiful children. It doesn't matter if Saffy is Linda's; I love her as much as I love the others. Bill's the one for me. I knew it back then and I know it now. I might not be the one for him but he is the one for me. He keeps me steady and down to earth"

"I could do that" Derek said quietly. "I could do it all. And I love them too"

"I can't go with you. It wouldn't be fair, on all of us"

Dinner was awkward for him. It was clearly over between him and Eve and he was going to leave very soon. It was the last supper for him and no one but him and Eve knew it. After the plates were cleaned he said his goodbyes to all of them, having difficulty to break away from Rose and as he walked down the path towards the road, Eve stood there by the door watching him quietly.

He heard her voice for the very last time, "I really did adore you"

And then his ideal world of sunshine and peace shattered.


End file.
